


Consultation

by blythechild



Series: Gift Fics 2015 [3]
Category: Criminal Minds, Forever (TV)
Genre: Awkwardness, Case Fic, Cell Phones, Crossover, Flirting, Friendship, Gen, Medical Procedures, Murder, Secret Identity, Strangers, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-28
Updated: 2015-12-28
Packaged: 2018-05-10 01:33:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5563687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blythechild/pseuds/blythechild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Henry Morgan and Spencer Reid meet during the course of a case and general weirdness ensues.</p><p> </p><p>This is a work of fanfiction and as such I do not claime ownership over the characters herein. It was created as a personal amusement. This story contains some medical descriptions - it is suitable for readers 14 and up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Consultation

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Draycevixen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Draycevixen/gifts).



> This story is a gift fic for Draycevixen, created from the following prompt: _Forever/Criminal Minds, Henry Morgan + Spencer Reid, they cross paths during a case_. Merry Christmas, blossom, and I hope you like it.

Henry looked up from the body on his table as Lucas shuffled through the security doors flipping through envelopes in his hand.

“Mail came,” he mumbled, still flipping.

“Did the-” Henry started, eyebrows rising in curiosity.

“Nope,” Lucas cut him off. “No notice from the American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology about our article.”

“Damn,” he muttered quietly and went back to excising his corpse’s stomach. He worked in silence for a minute until he heard Lucas slide into his lab coat and snap on some surgical gloves.

“What’s this?”

Henry felt Lucas lean over the body on the table. He bristled at the ‘what’ of his question instead of using ‘who’. Just because they dealt with dead people all day was no reason to reduce them to things. They were all people once with stories of their own, successes, failures, others who perhaps loved them and would miss them. Henry felt strongly that each person’s story, not matter how ignominious, should be told to someone.

“This is Charles Draisaitl: forty-five year old hardware store owner from the Bronx, married, father of two…” Henry winced as he finally freed the stomach and moved to weigh it and drain the contents for analysis. “And so far, he died from no apparent cause.”

“Really…” Lucas smiled, suddenly a lot more interested in Charles Draisaitl. “He’s stumped you?”

“Certainly not. My examination is in its infancy,” Henry sniffed. “But still… he is a mystery.”

“He has restraint marks on his wrists and ankles.”

“Yes, I know, Lucas.”

“Maybe he was into something, you know… _kinky_.” Lucas’s face lit up at the possibilities. “Maybe this is breath play gone wrong or poorly-planned BDSM…”

If Henry hadn’t had Charles’s guts all over his hands, he would’ve rubbed his forehead in exasperation. “Lucas, there are times when I value your oddball imagination but mostly I feel as though your prurient insights tell me more about you than any corpse. In a majority of cases when you hear hoof beats, you really should be looking for horses. People can be quite predictable.”

Lucas was still peering at Draisaitl like an exotic bug under a microscope. “That hasn’t been my experience at all, Dr. Morgan,” he mumbled.

“Of course not.” Henry rolled his eyes.

“It’s always the quiet, ordinary ones who have the crazy secret lives. _That_ you can almost predict.” Lucas moved around the table and appeared to be inspecting the corpse’s genitals. Henry huffed and pushed him aside trying to get this autopsy back on track. “Do we know anything more about him other than his vital stats?”

“Detective Martinez is looking into it.”

Lucas nodded. Henry was surprised that the mention of Martinez hadn’t triggered a flood of blabbering, obvious questions about her and when she might show up at the lab. Then he looked up at Henry.

“That reminds me…” Oh, here it comes…

“There’s a guy waiting out at Reception. A doctor.”

Henry’s scalpel hovered above Charles’s aorta. “A doctor? On whom is he waiting?”

“I think it’s this guy. He’s the only body that’s come in today, right? He said he was here for the corpse that was brought in this morning.”

“Is he family?”

“Dunno.”

“What is his interest in this case?”

“Dunno.” Lucas was now investigating the webbing between the body’s toes.

“ _Lucas_ ,” Henry huffed. It was only ten forty-five and he’d already exhausted his patience with his assistant. “You have a deplorable lack of curiosity about the living. Not to mention terrible manners.”

Lucas blinked at him. “I got into this career field in an effort to avoid the living.”

“Well done then,” Henry said dryly. He motioned toward the lab doors. “Go get this doctor - I won’t have him lingering in Reception. Let’s figure out what his part in this is. And _apologize_ to him for making him wait, Lucas.”

Lucas shot him a resentful glare and then disappeared. Henry breathed a huge sigh and returned to Mr. Draisaitl’s heart. A few minutes passed and then Henry heard the lab doors whoosh open and closed. He only heard the heavy tread of Lucas’s combat boots and looked up to see if his general rudeness had successfully scared the doctor away. But Lucas accompanied a young man who seemed barely out of college. He wore a trim, dark suit that almost disguised the eclectic sweater vest beneath it. His hair was long in all the wrong places, but Henry had come to understand that was the fashion these days, and he wore beat up tennis shoes, which accounted for his nearly silent footfalls. Henry arched an eyebrow at him. This man was a doctor? His disbelief remained hidden as the visitor’s eyes were riveted to the body on the table.

“Good morning,” Henry offered when it became apparent that the doctor wasn’t going to introduce himself. “I’m Dr. Morgan, Chief Medical Examiner. How may I help you?”

“Morning. I’m Dr. Reid.” Dr. Reid looked up and smiled, waving a little awkwardly. “Is this the victim that was found at Union Station this morning?”

Victim. That was interesting. Henry hadn’t ruled out natural causes yet.

“Mr. Draisaitl was found sitting on a bench on the Departures level, yes. Do you know him?”

“Not at all.” Dr. Reid came right to the edge of the drain table and peered into the body’s open cavity, no hesitation whatsoever. “May I have a pair of forensics gloves?”

“Not until you explain your interest in this body, sir, no.” Henry was not used to indulging in second opinions.

Dr. Reid looked up at him in confusion.

“If you were hired by the family, or are from another jurisdiction you’ll have to wait. My examination is far from complete, Doctor.”

“I’m not a medical doctor, but I do have extensive experience with forensic evidence. I’m sorry… I thought that the local field office would’ve called ahead already…”

“What sort of doctor are you?” Lucas spoke up.

“I have doctorates in chemistry, mathematics, and philosophy.” Dr. Reid went back to squinting at the corpse but was careful to keep himself away from every surface so as not to contaminate anything.

Lucas snorted. “Really?”

“Yeah,” Dr. Reid looked up at him. “Really.”

“Well, what would you use all of that for?” Lucas blurted in his typically unrestrained way. Henry was also wondering how Dr. Reid’s studies aligned with his familiarity with dead bodies.

“I can’t imagine doing my job without them,” Dr. Reid mumbled and then glanced at Henry. “Have all of his organs been accounted for?”

Henry blinked. “Yes.”

“Hmmm, interesting.”

“Dr. Reid, I really must insist on an explanation for your presence here…”

“Of course. I’m sorry… I get carried away sometimes. I’m with the FBI. We heard about Mr. Draisaitl and thought he might be part of a pattern we’ve been tracking in Manhattan.”

Lucas snorted again. “If you’re FBI then I’m Batman.”

Dr. Reid looked to Lucas as he half bent over the corpse. Then he fished in his coat pocket until he produced his credentials. He waited a moment until Lucas got a good look at the badge. “Hello, Batman.”

“Uh, well… wow,” Lucas stammered. “I apologize, Doctor, again. It’s just… you sure don’t look like FBI and… do you really think this is part of a serial pattern, ‘cause… that would be _awesome_ …”

Henry sighed inwardly and decided to make it his mission to teach Lucas some Miss Manners basics when he had a moment. Dr. Reid just watched Lucas blather away with a strange smile on his face.

“…not that murder is awesome… although it is to a Medical Examiner, right, Dr. Morgan? It really spices things up around here… oh, and thanks for calling me Batman. It would be cool if I was.”

“It certainly would be,” Dr. Reid grinned and it made Lucas preen a little and shut up at the same time. Henry was impressed.

“Dr. Reid,” Henry tried to wrestle the conversation back to the matter at hand. “As I said, my examination isn’t finished but if you tell me what you’re looking for perhaps we can speed this along. I usually don’t like to be contaminated by preconceived notions…”

“Neither do I, Dr. Morgan, so I’ll make this brief and get out of your hair.” Dr. Reid straightened and shoved his hands in his pockets. “We’re following a pattern of deaths that appear to involve organ removal and display at various transit hubs. Initially, the victims seemed to have died of natural causes except their age and fitness level makes that unlikely. Closer examination reveals that poison is the C.O.D. and archaic poisoning at that. Since the Manhattan M.E.’s Office was the birthplace of forensic poisoning detection, we - or actually _I_ \- believe that the UnSub is a New York historical buff of some kind.”

Henry nodded. He remembered those heady days. “Alexander Gettler was a rigid, unsociable sort but his dedication to methodology and the irrefutability of scientific evidence was remarkable.”

Dr. Reid stared at him with a confused wrinkle between his brows.

“I’m a bit of a New York history buff myself,” Henry amended. “How do the missing organs fit into it?”

“We think that’s how he’s choosing his victims. The organ removal is often several years old - it’s not a part of the UnSub’s M.O. We’re operating under the assumption that the killer is a medical specialist or has access to organ transplant information. Otherwise, there’s nothing to link the victims - they are all ordinary people. No criminal records, no bad habits, really vanilla lives.”

“That’s disappointing,” Lucas sighed and Dr. Reid looked at him. “This guy’s got restraint marks…”

“Lucas enjoys zebra hunting,” Henry explained.

“Yes, I noticed the restraint bruising,” Dr. Reid nodded. “That doesn’t fit our profile. And this one has all of his organs, so… this probably isn’t part of the pattern. What do you know about him?”

“Very little,” Henry sighed. “I’m waiting on our investigator to get back to me with further details.”

“Hmmm, I think I can help with that.” Dr. Reid pulled out an ancient cell phone and dialed leaving the call on speaker for everyone to hear.

 _“Speak and receive wisdom,”_ the voice on the other end purred. Both Henry and Lucas raised their eyebrows.

“Hey, Garcia, got a minute for a quick background search?”

_“Anything for you, Thin Man. Gimme tha deets.”_

“Tell her what you know.” Reid nodded to Henry and held his phone out to him.

“Umm, Hello Ms. Garcia. I’m Dr. Morgan of the New York Medical Examiner’s Office.”

_“Well, good morning to you, Dr. Morgan. Love that accent.”_

Henry blushed and Lucas lit up like the fourth of July. Dr. Reid sighed loudly.

“Behave, Penelope.”

_“I just bring delight wherever I go, Reid. I can’t help myself. Now, Dr. Morgan, give me some facts to munch on.”_

“We have a male victim, forty-five years old named Charles Draisaitl, two ‘a’s and two ‘i’s, no vowel between the ‘t’ and ‘l’. He’s married and from the Bronx but we don’t know much more than that.”

_“That’s more than enough, Doctor, though I’d love to hear more in that voice of yours. How about some ‘God Save the Queen’?”_

Henry smiled as they heard keyboard clicking over the phone. “Would the Pledge of Allegiance do? I’m an American now… oh, also Mr. Draisaitl was an avid walker and allergic to cats though he appeared to spend a lot of time around them. I’m not sure if that’s information you can use…”

Lucas looked at Henry for elucidation while Reid looked intensely at the body, still holding his phone out in front of him. 

“His shoes were well worn - he pronated. It’s unlikely that he accrued that wear pattern from standing in his store,” Henry mused. “And his mucosal membranes were inflamed and had been for a while. He also had clean clothes but there were feline hairs worked into the creases of his pants as if they’d been washed in over time.”

“I agree,” Dr. Reid nodded and then waved Henry over with his hand holding the phone. “Dr. Morgan, what do you make of this discoloration by the ankles? Could there be an histamine reaction underneath the restraint bruises?”

Henry peered closely and then looked to Dr. Reid with an impressed nod. “I believe so. Good eyes, Dr. Reid.”

“Thanks. People can be surprising beneath the surface.”

“Indeed.” 

“That’s what I say!” Lucas chirped up.

“That’s not what you say at all, Lucas,” Henry shot him a long-suffering glance. “You want everyone to be more interesting than they are. Your flights of fancy have very little correlation to the evidence at hand.”

“I didn’t think medical examiners did much in the way of deduction. It’s often instinctual rather than scientific,” Dr. Reid said.

“The body’s only half of the story. I like to get as clear a picture as I can when I sum up a person’s life.” Henry was starting to like the doctor. He was certainly the most interesting FBI agent he’d ever come across. “Don’t you combine deduction and science in your job?”

“Yes, but it took me years to learn the deduction piece. They try their best to beat the imagination out of you in grad school…”

Henry chuckled. “Yes, well, I’ve had _years_ to learn the art of deduction too.”

_“Yahtzee!”_

Henry jumped but Dr. Reid just smiled and said ‘she’s got something’ by way of explanation.

_“You bet your lovely, overly accredited brains I’ve got something. I’m including you in that too, Dr. Morgan, because you sound deliciously brilliant…”_

“Garcia, facts first, flirt later.”

_“Yes, sir! You know, you sound more like Hotch every day…”_

Dr. Reid blushed furiously but kept silent and it led Henry to wonder who this Hotch person was.

_“Well, Mr. Charles Draisaitl looks like a boring cup of joe on paper, but dig just a little deeper and BINGO! He’s got all sorts of poorly concealed digital unsavoriness… Turns out he was a member of some private Facebook bondage groups and he has a ton of archived S &M chat room messages as well as some fairly kinky purchase histories from his credit cards…”_

Lucas made a ‘there you go’ face as he gestured to Dr. Reid’s phone in triumph. Henry thought that he’d be impossible to live with for the next week or so because of this revelation.

_“The interesting, and sorta sad part is that Mrs. Draisaitl doesn’t have anything like this in her background. They’ve been married sixteen years and it seems like she’s not a part of any of this… oh, that’s going to be such a terrible shock to her, poor thing…”_

“Anything about cats, Garcia?”

_“Oh yeah! His email shows a recent foray into furry forums - say that five times fast… Anyway, the sites he’s been visiting aren’t your standard furry stuff. They are more… feral, let’s say. Members use real pelts and claws and fangs an’ stuff, and the role playing can get violent - apparently, proving your fitness to a mate ranks pretty high with these folks. Like ‘battle to the death’ sorta stuff. Jeez, humans are just weird sometimes, ya know?”_

“Sing me a bar of that, sister,” Lucas giggled a little hysterically as he rocked on his feet. Both Henry and Dr. Reid gave him a curious look and his laughter stopped as tried to find something useful to do instead.

_“Who was that?”_

“My evil twin,” Dr. Reid dismissed. “Thanks for this, Garcia, I owe you one.”

_“No you don’t, Brainiac. Dr. SexyVoice owes me one.”_

Henry blushed again. “Thank you, Ms. Garcia. Your services were invaluable. I wish we had one of you in the New York Police Department.”

_“Well, if I consider a career change, New York will be on the top of my list. We’d have such an amazing phone affair… like ‘Pillow Talk’…”_

“Something to look forward to.” Henry cooed a little, getting carried away with the silly flirtation. Between Garcia and Dr. Reid, Henry was reconsidering his decades-long opinion of the stodgy Bureau.

Garcia made a dramatic sighing sound across the line and then Dr. Reid smirked before signing off and placing his phone back in his pocket.

“She’s hot,” Lucas grinned like fiend from across the room. Both Henry and Dr. Reid stared at him in judgment before turning back to poor, perverse Charles Draisaitl.

“So, I think the background clears Mr. Draisaitl from my pattern…”

“Yes, apparently so. Though it would appear that my investigation won’t be as simple as I initially thought.” Henry would have to bounce this all off Martinez later but it certainly wouldn’t be an open-and-shut case.

“If the wife and any lovers are cleared, the case could get considerably more complicated. Once premeditation comes into it, and factoring in his high-risk extracurricular activities, you’ll have no choice but to look for an experienced, high-functioning psychopathic personality. It often takes years to catch them.”

“I’ve got time,” Henry muttered as he considered the body. He looked up and saw Dr. Reid staring at him again, as if he were reading the lines on his face. He fished in his pockets once more and handed Henry a bent business card without breaking his stare. The card had Dr. Reid’s name, phone extension, the FBI logo in one corner, and a line of small print that just read ‘Behavioral Analysis’.

“If this starts looking like a serial, and you need a different set of eyes, give us a call.”

“Thank you, Doctor. I’ll remember your offer,” Henry nodded with genuine appreciation and pocketed the card. “Though I imagine that any alliance between our two agencies would be fraught with emotional tension due to the unspoken bond that I now have with your Ms. Garcia.”

Henry’s lips curled into a smile and Dr. Reid did the same, nodding. “Garcia is undeniable. Most people find themselves a little bit in love with her eventually.”

Henry snapped off his gloves and removed his lab smock, directing Dr. Reid to the exit with an open hand. “I’ll walk you out, Doctor. Sorry that we couldn’t provide more insight into your pattern… by the way, what is the transit connection? You never explained that.”

“It’s my pet theory - it’s not officially part of our profile.” Dr. Reid walked beside Henry, his hands casually stuffed into his pockets. “The classic poisoner’s handbook stuff got me thinking about the UnSub and his ties to New York history. Then, with each body being found at a transit hub - but always an _old_ one - I think his obsession with history goes deeper than the lore of the Medical Examiner’s Office. I think he’s commenting on the growth and modernity of the city. There’s a link between poisoning and the subway… I just haven’t made it yet.”

“When they were building the subway, corpses were always showing up at the construction sites. There were so many excavation accidents and explosions that they were pulling bodies out of them almost daily. It was a terrible mess and the smell! Well, it wouldn’t have been difficult to overlook a corpse for a while and then write it off as an uncollected victim of a construction mishap. The coroners in those days were appointed as ‘gifts’ from the mayor’s office and the recipients often had less medical understanding than a shoe shine boy, so plenty of murders went unnoticed. Those were dark times in New York… crime truly flourished. Perhaps your killer is trying to say that he can kill with the impunity of those bygone days… in fact, crime in this city wasn’t brought to heel until Gettler established the supremacy of his forensics laboratory almost a quarter of a century later.”

Dr. Reid was staring at Henry again. There was something about the way he looked at him; Henry was used to getting slightly incredulous stares from Martinez when he mentioned a little too much about old New York, but the doctor’s stare was almost _knowing_. But no one could _know_ just by guessing… who would make a crazy leap like that?

“You really know a lot about New York’s history for an immigrant,” Dr. Reid said carefully.

“Everyone needs a hobby.”

Dr. Reid nodded. “Oh, by the way, what part of Wales are you from? Garcia’s going to ask and I can’t quite place the accent…”

“You can distinguish a Welsh accent?”

He shrugged. “I have a friend who’s a linguistics expert and I pay attention. The Welsh burr is distinct but your diction is so crisp, as if you were classically educated, and most likely not in Wales. And your phrasing… it’s very unique. Anyway, I can’t nail it down but I’m sure that all dialects of the British Isles sound muddy to an American ear…”

Dr. Reid was being casual to the point of diffidence, but Henry was fairly certain that he was paying keen attention to everything that was said. He decided that the doctor was _definitely_ the most interesting FBI agent he’d ever met, and that he should be more careful around him if they ever met again.

“You seem to have determined a lot with your American ears. I’m from Cardiff originally, but that was long ago. I went away to school and traveled extensively before I came to America. Most people categorize me as ‘English’ and look no further.”

“Well, Garcia will be pleased,” he smiled affably. “I don’t think she’s ever crushed on a Welshman before.”

“I’m happy to oblige in that case,” Henry smiled back, having reached the lab’s doors. He wondered if Dr. Reid would leave things at that, or take one last stab at uncovering what Henry was hiding; he seemed like the type who was unlikely to let things go. “All the best with your pattern case, Doctor.”

“Good luck with yours as well.” Dr. Reid waved goodbye. He turned to go but then hesitated for a second. “Thank you for your historical insight into the evolution of forensic expertise - that will be useful. If I should need more facts in that vein about New York, may I call you? The Bureau could use as many experts as it can find…”

That was quite subtle of him, Henry thought. Indeed, Dr. Reid was not the sort to let things go and it seemed as though Henry’s inconsistencies had peaked his interest. He’d have to watch himself more closely around this one than he did Martinez…

“You know where to find me,” Henry smiled in the flattered way that was expected, but he also hoped that Dr. Reid would ask him about more New York-isms. After all, it was more than just a hobby, it was part of his story and as much as he hid, he also wanted his story to be told even if it were only in pieces.

“Great. Thanks again.” And Dr. Reid disappeared through the doors. A moment of silence passed before Henry heard Lucas clearing his throat across the lab.

“So that guy was weird, huh? Especially for a feeb…”

“Weird is a relative term in this lab,” Henry sighed and then turned back to see what his assistant was doing. His resignation turned into a scowl almost immediately as he stood straight and marched back to the drain table. “Lucas, if you do not stop inspecting that man’s genitals immediately, I’m going to dock you half a day’s pay!”


End file.
